Algae to gasoline gets investment from Bill Gates

Sapphire Energy just got $100 million in funding from venture capital firms, including one owned by Bill Gates.

They, and other firms, are working at what could be the holy grail of renewable fuel – cost-competitive gasoline created from algae. They’ve already successfully made 91-octane fuel from algae. Now they want to scale the process to 100,000 barrels a day, then to mass production.

Whoever can pull this off – and someone will – well, it’ll make Bill Gates’ fortune look small as well as creating genuinely renewable fuel on a commercial basis. Wow.

Sapphire Energy has built a revolutionary platform that uses photosynthetic microorganisms to produce a renewable, high-value replacement for fossil fuel petroleum. This domestic crude oil requires only sunlight, CO2 and non-potable water – and can be produced at massive scale on non-arable land.